When Schaine Madduc returned to Koryphon after five years in space, her home planet was not as she left it. The several intelligent species that had lived so long in a sort of symbiotic harmony were at each other's throats. Most prominently, the humanoid Uldra were united in rebellion against the human land-holding community of which Schaine was part. But Schaine was even more a part than she realized, for the Uldra revolutionary leader and catalyst-the Gray Prince Jorjol-was actually an Uldra fostered in Schaine's own home, and upon whom Schaine had exerted a profound influence. An influence far more profound than Schaine would have thought possible. An influence possibly powerful enough to smash her home, her family, and her entire way of life!